a third trimester of blooming babies

This month we celebrated Liam turning five, Bear turning two, and the twins and I entering the third trimester of pregnancy!

We have now made it to week 32, which anything past 30 with twins I am told is a huge victory. And in our house we will celebrate even the tiniest of victories.

For me, each pregnancy has been equally amazing but vastly different than the one before. Five years ago with Liam, I walked around feeling like a pregnant goddess. I worked at my full time job at the hospital and continued my ballet barre and yoga routine until literally the day my water broke. I never understood when my other pregnant friends spoke about heart burn, swollen ankles, or stretch marks. Oh how naive of me.

With Bear, all the third trimester joy was somewhat overshadowed by our worries over his placenta previa and his breech presentation. I spent most of weeks 32-39 engaging in head stands, going to acupuncture, and even suffering through a horribly painful external version procedure in an effort to turn him head down for a vaginal delivery (spoiler: he never did end up turning!)

With the twins, things have just felt….different. I don’t know if it is because my body is older or because there are two babies, two placentas, and two sacs of water in there, but I FEEL very much pregnant. My lower back is constantly in a pinch no matter how much I massage it, I feel tight and sore in my pelvis. My feet have begun swelling. And a particular body parts down below is way more swollen than I thought that particular body part could ever get.

But despite the changes that are happening to my body, the twins continue to grow and thrive. I am told they are measuring bigger at 32 weeks than I normal singleton pregnancy does, just confirming that my Sasquatch husband and I do not make tiny babies. Their height and weight measurements are only within 5% difference from one another (which I am told is important). They are both head down as of now. And I feel movement and kicking all day long from both brother and sister. It is amazing how the idea of twins seems so dangerous and high risk and yet my doctor has assured me that all is well and I can just take these last few weeks to enjoy my growing bump until the final countdown arrives.

So today we decided to take advantage of a rare warm and sunny day in Charleston and walk down to Hampton Park to see the magnolia tree. It felt good to stretch my legs and Bear and I enjoyed chasing the ducks and picking up the fallen flowers from the ground. Age two, while challenging as it is, is one of my favorite ages and I love seeing the world though Bear’s eyes. I wish I could bottle him up forever and keep him at this age.